Energy and Mines Minister Antonio Almonte told Listin Diario that audits underway at the three government power utilities reveal major irregularities. Almonte says a “two-headed octopus” was profiteering from family ties to win generous government contracts with the utilities. He made the observation coinciding with the recent sending to preventive custody of several government officials, contractors and alleged front men in a case the Justice Department has named “Anti-Octopus Operation.”
Furthermore, Almonte, who is a nuclear engineer, said that despite the billiionaire contracting, the government had made very little investment in the three utilities over the past eight years.
Almonte said that the great challenge of the national electricity sector is not generation. For the Minister of Energy and Mines, Antonio Almonte, the most difficult obstacles are fixing the distribution network and the poor quality of services the utilities provide consumers.
Almonte was interviewed for the Listín Diario Breakfast. He said procurement at the three government utilities had been “kidnapped” by two companies linked to the same family that won most of the tenders. He said preliminary auditing reports indicate complicity with the managers of the utilities.
The power utilities were under the Public Electricity Corporation (CDEEE) in the past Medina administration. The chief executive of the CDEEE back then, Rubén Jiménez Bichara, was appointed the campaign manager for Gonzalo Castillo, who ran for President with the backing of then President Danilo Medina.
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Listin Diario
11 December 2020